1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to coated electrosurgical electrodes and more particularly, to a method of mass manufacturing a plurality of electrosurgical blades having a non-stick coating that resists the build up of eschar and facilitates facile removal of eschar build-up.
2. Background of the Related Art
Electrosurgical electrodes and/or blades are used to cut and coagulate tissue. The electrodes conduct high frequency electrosurgical energy from an appropriate electrical power source to the patient. Many electrically powered instruments using electrosurgical electrodes, such as coagulation forceps, suction cauteries, electrode cautery tips and blades, are well-known.
A working tip of the electrosurgical electrode is subject to high temperatures during use, particularly where an electrosurgical arc is generated, i.e. during fulguration or coagulation. These high temperatures cause the proteins, carbohydrates and lipids in the body to coagulate in the tissue as well as adhere to the working tip. This coagulant is commonly called eschar. Eschar that adheres to the working tip is undesirable because it may reduce cutting and coagulation performance.
Coating an electrosurgical electrode to reduce eschar buildup and make the electrode easier to clean is known in the art. Various coatings are used with medical instruments to render the electrode surface less adherent and facilitate cleaning of the electrode tip. U.S. Pat. No. 4,785,807 discloses an electrosurgical electrode having a first coat of primer material and a second coat of fluorinated hydrocarbon material with RF energy transferred to a treatment site through a capacitive coupling.
Electrosurgical electrodes coated with a non-stick layer may be manufactured individually, i.e., producing one coated electrode per manufacturing process. U.S. Pat. No. 5,702,387 assigned to Valleylab Inc. discloses an electrode blade having a silicone elastomer coating and alternative manufacturing techniques for producing the coated blades, including dip and spray coating the individual blades.
Manufacturing techniques for producing an electrode blade having a nonstick coating, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,702,387 whereby a single coated electrode is produced per manufacturing process, are expensive and time consuming.
Techniques for producing a plurality of electrodes per manufacturing process are also known. These techniques often utilize automated processes such as feeding a coated coil through a progressive stamping operation. Prior to stamping, the raw material coil is processed in a "coil coating" step whereby the coil is fed through rollers and a non-stick coating is applied to the coil sheet from a coating bath. For example, application Ser. No. 08,367,493 that issued as U.S. Pat. No. 5,713,895 on Feb. 3, 1998, discloses such a manufacturing technique for producing a plurality of electrode blades having a partial non-stick coating whereby conductive sites for contacting tissue may include peaks about the surface of the blade. Adjacent peaks define valleys upon which the non-stick coating primarily resides. That patent is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The use of a partially coated electrode blade only provides tissue treatment at the exposed conductive sites. In some cases, the limited number of conductive sites may not provide a sufficient tissue treatment area for a particular surgical application, such as, e.g., where a greater amount of tissue requires treatment.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method of mass manufacturing a plurality of electrosurgical electrodes coated with a non-stick layer that provides increased conductive contact area for tissue treatment and advantageously utilizes a mass manufacturing technique that increases the commercial viability of the non-stick coated electrode over the current state of the art.